In present day point-of-sale (POS) operations, the MICR indicia that are to appear on the check of a customer are added after the sale, and at a remote location (i.e., either at the bank, or in a separate, back room at the retail site).
For the first time, this invention seeks to eliminate the post-operative role of supplying the required MICR indicia on a check presented for POS payment at a retail establishment. Owing to its new function, machines now being designed by the present assignee of this invention, must be able to encode and read MICR characters located in a specific field (i.e., the amount field) of the check at the point-of-sale.
In a MICR encoder of the new machine, the MICR characters must be printed at a precise distance from the right edge of the check in order to place the MICR characters in the proper field site. In order to accomplish this, an optical sensor is provided to detect the edge of the check and stage it at a known location from the thermal, MICR print head. It then becomes a simple matter to advance the check by a stepper motor a fixed number of step increments in order to start the printing sequence at the proper position.
In addition, it is essential that the encoded MICR characters be verified after printing to assure their accuracy. The MICR indicia imprinted upon each check extend to each edge on the left and right of the check to within approximately 0.31 inches. Because of this proximity of the MICR printing to the edges of the check and the fact that a positive, steady drive of the check is required to ensure accurate reading of the MICR characters, a sophisticated drive system is required, capable of handling the check while reading MICR characters at either end of the check. Generally, a drive system with two sets of drive rollers has been employed. Because the plural drive stations should be synchronized, this has resulted in a bulky, sophisticated and, consequently, expensive solution to the problem.
The inventive MICR encoder for the transaction printer has overcome the complex drive system requirement by adding an additional MICR read head positioned in the document path at a position at which the newly-encoded amount field may be read (verified) while the document is being driven by the printer's single set of drive rolls. The second MICR read head is used to verify that the encoded amount field MICR characters are within specification.
Verified checks are processed normally. However, should the printed characters fail to be in specification, it is important for the retail establishment to know this, and to be able to identify the checks that fail. This is so, because most banks charge a substantial fee for finding and processing "bad" encodes made at the retailer. This is understandable because, regardless of where the encoding operation is performed, a "bad" encode may result in considerable effort in proofing the batch of checks. Most bad encodes result in a simple rejection failure (i.e., the check simply cannot be read) by the bank's check processing equipment. Certain encoding problems, however, result in a substitution failure (i.e., the successful reading of a character different from the encoded character, such as reading a "5" for an inscribed "2"). Since locating and resolving a substitution failure is a complex and time-consuming task, it is therefore imperative that the MICR encoding operation minimize problems which can result in substitution failures.
Two types of verifications are necessary in accordance with the check processing machine of this invention. The first verification determines whether there has been a media failure (i.e., whether the check is folded, wrinkled, mutilated, or has been poorly inserted into the check processing system). For example, it is common for a customer to remove a check from a wallet or billfold where the check has been folded one or more times. The second verification applies to system failures, wherein the media appears to be good, but the MICR read verification failed.
The inventive system and method of this invention flags the occurrence of a verification failure. The system inquires of the operator whether to proceed. The operator can answer "yes," if in the operator's opinion, the media was to blame for the failure. In such a case, the printer of the system continues to encode and verify subsequently inserted documents. Should it be determined that the media was not at fault, then the system provides a message that the encode function is no longer available, and that the operator should call a service representative. Regardless of the cause, however, there then appears in the system display, the message: "failure to verify." The message also includes the account number and the encoded dollar amount. The operator removes the flagged check and stores it in a separate bin for subsequent, special processing.
The flagging system and method of this invention ensures that the MICR encode system achieves the maximum uptime and performance, while allowing the retailer to segregate bad encodes from good encodes, thus avoiding large bank service charges.